A Literary Reception of Karl Barth’s Römerbrief: On Barthianism in John Updike’s Roger’s Version
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
American author John Hoyer Updike (1932-2009) once said, “Karl Barth was my hero among theologians.” Updike found Barth’s early writings from Der Römerbrief (1922) until Fides Quaerens Intellectum (1931) especially interesting. Moreover, Barthian motives also played a role in Updike’s novels. This becomes most obvious in Roger’s Version (1986), a novel about a theological professor, Roger Lambert. The novel addresses Barthian topics such as revelation and knowledge of God in modernity, narrated through vivid examples of human arrogance, guilt, and infidelity. In addition to presenting a body of Updike’s conscious stylistic writing, this chapter delves into Barthian theological perspectives in Roger’s Version and Updike’s personal convictions. The chapter emphasizes mainly the dialectic “wisdom of death” as a key to interpreting the book. (The orality of the presentation has been retained to some extent.).
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Crisis and Reorientation : Karl Barth’s Römerbrief in the Cultural and Intellectual Context of Post WWI Europe |
Editors | Christian Svinth-Værge Põder, Sigurd Baark |
Number of pages | 20 |
Publisher | Springer |
Publication date | 1 Jan 2023 |
Pages | 195-214 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783031276767 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783031276774 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
- John Updike, Karl Barth’s dialectical theology, Mystery of the hidden God, Theology and fictional literature, Wisdom of death in theology
Research areas
ID: 369366687